Did you buy a fixer upper?

How much work did you have to do? What type of projects did you take on? We will be doing a lot of the work ourselves, so I'm starting to get nervous.

If we get the house, ours will definitely need work. My mother said after being in a move in conditional house for a year, I'd get bored anyways and want to change this. I guess this way, we can make the place ours right from the start.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

We didnt really buy a fixer upper. The house we bought was in move in condition, minus the bathroom needed to be tiled.

We decided that we wanted to knock a wall down, and put down new flooring, and install sliding doors, and do other things, and thank god we are able to do these things without living in the house.

If you can get the house at a good price and you can afford to do the renovation now, I would do it. Also it doesnt hurt if you, your Dh or anyone in both of your families could help out.

My father in law is doing most of the work, My brother in law Tom has helped out too and he is also installing the Laminate Flooring, and my other brother in law is doing the bathroom tile.

Scott

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

The home I live in wasn't a fixer upper, although I renovated almost the entire house. It wasn't the style that we liked, so we changed it around completely.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

I dont know if I considered my house a full fixer upper - when I think fixer upper I think of windows falling out, holes in the wall, etc etc etc.

We did a lot to 'update' our house. It was like it was stuck in the 70s. There would be no way I could live there without fixing it up - so maybe it is deemed as a fixer upper, just not a 'going to fall over' fixer upper!

Here are some pics.

Fixer Upper Status?

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

I would say your house was a fixer upper. Love the pics. I love how your kitchen turned out....The Cabinets look right at home in the updated kitchen.

Scott

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

We bought a fixer-upper. We replaced the windows, tore down wood paneling, put in new floors, carpeting, stripped all the moulding and re-painted all the rooms. Basically, soup to nuts. We also had to replace the burner, so we did a gas conversion and put in central air. We should really put on a new roof too, but we plan on extending two bedrooms upstairs in a year or two, so the roof will be done then.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

We did, but not intentionally. We bought our house from ILs, who knew of all the problems but "forgot" to mention them and talked us out of an inspection "Why waste all that money?" Needless to say things aren't good between us & ILs, and it's caused a lot of stress between DH & I. MIL thinks she gave us a great deal and we're just totally unappreciative.

We've been in the house almost 2 years, we've had to remove an above ground pool that was so old a bush was growing out of the bottom of it, replace the roof, the fence, the electric, the plumbing, we tore down paneling, replaced the carpeting and we're having the full bathroom redone now b/c the valves in the toilet were shot and leaked into the walls. The workers found out yesterday (when they started the work) that it also leaked into the sheetrock in our half bath (right under it) which we really can't afford to fix right now.

Plus we installed a sprinkler system, all new landscaping, and had to clear up an outstanding CO that was over 30 years old.

We still have to upgrade the electric, new garage door, siding, new windows, redo the kitchen and now the half bath and we want to convert a storage room over the garage (attached to our bedroom) into a master suite with a bath and walkin closet. Then the house will be 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath.

Oh, and they moved out leaving all their crap here, so I had to clear out all their stuff too. Some rooms we couldn't open the door there was so much stuff, and it was like hip deep. You can't imagine the comments the neighbors have made about what a mess they left us in. But I'm not bitter or anything.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

We bought an as-is..

AS IN...HOLY CRAP, WE'RE SCREWED!!

The house needed EVERYTHING. 80% of the exterior structure was rebuilt. Every door (interior/exterior), window, bottom floor stud/sill was replaced. Both bathrooms, all sheetrock, electric, plumbing, heating, flooring, fixtures, kitchen, insulation, etc. It was a skeleton after we tore it down to the core. We even had to trash the concrete patios in both front and back of the house and have them repoured. New driveway, fence (PVC), retaining walls, pool, etc.

Every single aspect of the house was hand picked by us. We bought it for around $160,000 but have invested probably close to $200,000 now. Still, I feel it's worth it. The only thing that remains is one old refridge (we use as a spare) the dryer, the slider in the dining room (I wish we had changed), and one window in the bathroom that was new. That is it.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

my house was sold as move in condition it is amazing how good the house looks when the people that are selling it have there overly big furniture blocking all the damage from water leaks etc...

so we did a full gut of the entire house down to the studs and in some places had to reframe and stud out walls because of termite damage.
re sheetrocked everything
we re did both baths and the kitchen all new wood floors through out except for the dining/living room we refinished the existing floor and matched it into the hall
replaced the rood
replaced the siding
upgraded the electrical service and moved my panel box to a back room
converted a closet to a landry room

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

our house was as is too. The heating system failed while the house was vacant (being sold) & all the pipes froze & the finished basement filled up with 4 feet of water and all of the hardwood floors on the first floor as well as 90% of the sheetrock, insulation, doors & trim were ruined & gone when we bought it. All of the tile in one of the bathrooms was destroyed too. The house also needed a new heating system & entire new electrical system. We did all the work ourselves-except the oil burner installation.
It was a process & a year & a half later we are not 100% done, but it was the best choice we ever made. Worth every ounce of sweat equity.
This is what the whole first floor looked like when we bought it.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

Ours wasn't until my DH got his hands on it He came in full force and tore down doors, walls, stairs, etc., and then decide to do the work himself. trouble is he works 6 days a week and is hardly home, so the house has been one construction mess after another for the last 5 years!! I got used to it, but all of a sudden, I told him people don't live like this! We'll see if he hires someone to finish so many project saround here!

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

We bought a fixer upper and went to closing on the 12th of october and we have been working on it everyday and we still aren't done. Everything in the house had to be redone. It is a real pain but at least it will be to our liking when it is all fininshed when ever that may be.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

Our house came out of the inspection with a clean report - no problems. But it needs cosmetic work. We sanded the wood floors, sheetrocked the kitchen, and have other projects in mind when we have the extra $$$ and time for them.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

We did. The inspection report came back clean for the most part, except for the laundry room which we knew we needed to fix. I do consider it a fixer upper because the house needs a ton of updates...resanding and finishing the hardwood floors, ripping down the wood paneling, ripping out rugs, a new staircase, new siding, etc, etc, etc. The only things that were updated were the two bathrooms. My DH's friend is a contractor, so he gave us a great price to do the work. Plus we loved the location of the house.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

We did. It was in the right neighborhood, and needs tons of work. Among the things we need to do:

Upgrade the electric, and rewire the whole house (there are no 3 prong outlets in the whole house!!)
Replace all the plumbing because they're brass and need to be copper
Replace all the windows (most are cracked)
Redo the bathroom on 2nd floor (there's no shower in the whole house)
Redo the kitchen and bathroom on 1st floor (makes no sense, they put the bathroom behind the kitchen, and the back door of the house is in the BATHROOM!!!)
Redo the back section of the roof
Either get a new oil tank (there's a leak) or convert to gas
Get a hot water heater
Since the whole house is wallpapered, I'm sure that will be a project in itself

And now we'll have to do the nursery because I'm due in June

Finally, go BROKE! And we haven't even closed yet. Can you tell I'm a little stressed

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

We did, and I'm SOOOO happy with how it turned out. We did most of the work ourselves and a year and a half later, we've completed everything except for the mudroom Here's a link so you can see what we did:

House renovations

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

Beth- your house is stunning!

I love your kitchen- we want white cabinets and wood counterops too one day.

I don't consider our house a fixer upper- except for the kitchen- everything works and it is huge- it's just ugly! We can do it ouselves slowly but DH prefers a big renovation one day.

We installed a fence and need to redo some more windows. We will paint the exterior and do some landscaping ourselves in the spring.

other than the dining room floor, everything else is just painting.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

Hmmmm... we bought a 1971 colonial... all baths and kitchen original... let's see does all of this count..

1. Electrical- New wiring to replace aluminum
high-hats installed in hallways (up and down) and living room, all on dimmer switches. All new outside fixtures, motion sensor lights on perimeter, wiring for CAC...

2. CAC installed through the walls. 12 SEER unit...

3. Oil burner and tank- pump out and abate old tank, replace entire heating unit and hot water tank. 3 zone heating

4. Kitchen... complete gut, vault the ceiling, replace window with sliding glass doors, remove wall, install skylight, all new cabinets, granite counters, appliances

5. Master bath- take original 3/4 bath, gut it and knock down ajacent two walk in closets to create a 13' X 13' bathroom, new larger window, reconfigure plumbing
, build privacy wall for toilet, build platform for jacuzzi tub, large shower enclosure, large vanity, tile throughout, all new fixtures

6. Main bathroom- complete gut, replace tub, toilet, tile tub surround, install new fan, install light in shower, all new lighting fixtures, new vanity with tall (ceiling to floor closet cabinet)

7. Master bedroom- build out a 10 foot long closet on one wall to replace small walk-ins that were lost to master bath expansion.

8. Other three bedrooms- closet doors

9. Dining room- replace ceiling (leaked there years ago)

10. Living room- enlarge opening between living room and dining room.

11. 1/2 bath- replace all fixtures and retile

12. Replace banister going up the stairs and across the landing.

13. Crown moulding throughout

13. Paint entire interior

14. REfinish all wood floors

15. Replace carpet in livingroom and den with hardwood flooring.

16. Finish basement.

We aren't moving in until we do 1-14. We have a
3 1/2 month timetable.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

The outside was a fixer upper. The inside was pretty new, excepet the 1920's wallpaper

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

Ours was not really a fixer upper but we brought it from an elderly couple that had older person taste and after moving in we realized the man was not as handy as we thought he was, but the structure of the house was pretty sound.

Since we moved in though we have done a lot (in 3 years).

1. Had to put in new water heater because the other one was old.

2. Brought a new washing machine, dishwasher, stove and microwave (theres was from the 80s).

3. Re did the whole electric system in the house, because most of the electricity was on one circut. Also, it was clear the couple was not afraid of fire, what this guy did with wires is scary! So we got rid of a lot of his problems.

4. Re painted master bedroom, living room, dining room and office.

5. Removed all wall to wall carpeting and tiles (they were big fans of covereing every inch of the wood floors) and re did all the floors on the first floor with the exception of one room.

6. Put in wall to wall carpeting in master bedroom.

7. Totally ripped apart second smaller bathroom and re sheet rocked (we thought we were just going to take down the wall paper until we saw that he didn't even have sheet rock underneath it). Got all new fixtures in there as well.

8. Crown moldings and floor moldings for LR, DR and Hallway.

9 New front storm door.

We are not doing too much more now becuase we want to expand the house next year and any more work would be useless to do as it would probably be destroyed so we have left one room with Paneling on it and the master bathroom is nasty.

Message edited 11/15/2005 9:05:31 AM.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

Ours was not a fixer upper but almost a year later and we are still working on it.

Our dishwasher went after 3mths, our roof, plumbing problems, electric problems as in not one light on the outside of the house not even in the garage, painting, spackling, painting more and roof leaks and painting more and moving doors. Basic things but everything costs mucho money so it is very slow. I have a laundry list of things I want to fix or change but it is going to take me 30 yrs to do them.

Even if you buy a more in condition house you are going to change things and move things and put your style into it. So why pay for someone else's taste which is what ends up happening when you buy move in. You are going to adjust things to your taste either way.

Re: Did you buy a fixer upper?

Ours was also a fixer upper. Alot of paneling, wallpaper, drop ceilings in places I would never put them, and really old kitchen. If I can get some pics on my computer I will show them!